Can We Cope with Drugs?

In announcing his resignation last fall as drug czar, William Bennett asserted that the nation had turned the corner in the war on drugs. President Bush concurred. “We’re on the road to victory,” he declared.

They may be the only two people in America who believe that. While casual drug use among the middle class is declining—a trend that began well before Bennett’s term—the level of drug abuse in our inner cities remains alarmingly high. Drug-related violen...